TNFα is a cytokine produced by white blood cells, including monocytes and macrophages. The cytokine stimulates and activates the immune system in response to conditions such as infection or cancer. TNFα is thought to be involved in a variety of human diseases and disorders, including sepsis, infections, autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease. Furthermore, over production of TNFα can lead to immunological disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis.
In light of the role that TNFα plays in a human disease, antibodies that bind to TNFα have been sought for use in therapy to inhibit TNFα activity. (See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,382 to Salfeld, et al., WO2006/014477 to Crea, et al., and Rajpal, et al., PNAS 102:8466-8471). Therefore, it is important to develop human antibodies, antigen binding portions, and derivatives thereof that are capable of binding TNFα with high affinity and/or slow dissociation kinetics.